


two arrows shot the wrong way

by orphan_account



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Angst and Fluff and Smut, College AU, Eventual Smut, F/F, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Sexual Content, Strangers to Lovers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-01
Updated: 2020-06-15
Packaged: 2021-03-02 03:40:14
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 6,374
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23938552
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Manuela hires an artist to paint her dear dorothea.college au
Relationships: Dorothea Arnault/Bernadetta von Varley
Comments: 3
Kudos: 29





	1. good girl

“y-you want me to do what?” bernadetta squealed out in surprise as she read over the paper in her hands. some students in the back of the classroom looked to her curiously. “only if you want, but i think it’ll be a good opportunity for you.” byleth, bernadetta’s professor, drank her cup of coffee after she spoke. 

the paper in her hands was an offer of one thousand dollars in order to paint a girl. “w-who is s-she?” 

“hm. she’s a student here. i don’t think you’ve seen her. but manuela thought that she should have a hand painted portrait of her. for memories and what not.” byleth tapped her desk with her pointer finger. “so naturally i thought of you. like i said, i think it’ll be a great opportunity for you. i had to stop her before she posted those flyers around the whole campus. she is a very...” byleth kissed her teeth. “impatient woman.” she finally spoke. deciding that those words described her perfectly. 

“so you will need to give her your answer by tonight. i already told her to give you the opportunity first so there is no one else who knows.” byleth looked up to her student. “it’s okay.” she put her hand on bernadetta’s shoulder as she stood up from her seat. “dorothea is an incredible student. she’ll treat you kindly. i promise.” she looked into her eyes. 

“plus, i thought this was a safer option than having manuela spreading her number around. also for the fact that any could just pretend to be an artist to go see dorothea.” 

bernadetta knew that if she didn’t say ‘yes’ now. she would most definitely lose this opportunity, that was so good for her. it was her dream. “i-i’ll do it. bernie needs the opportunity.” she mumbled. 

she took out her phone and texted the number on the flyer. “i’m proud of you bernadetta. maybe you can even buy that mini fridge you wanted.” she teased her student. then went to sit back down. bernadetta put the number as ‘manuela’ since she already knew who it was.

when her phone vibrated in her hands she almost had a heart attack. she took a deep breath then opened the chat. fearing that she might’ve been rejected of this opportunity. 

bernadetta: I am interested in the painting opportunity. 

manuela: oh! my dear, that is fantastic. i will give you the number of my dear, dorothea. anywho, i assume you are bernadetta. i will need you to paint a portrait of her, once it is done i’ll pay you the one thousand. i’ll tell dorothea to expect your message! 

bernadetta: ok 

even though they weren’t speaking face to face, bernadetta could almost hear the woman’s strong voice. manuela sent her another message, it was dorothea’s number and some basic information about where she would go to paint her. 

eventually after talking to byleth for another hour and the other students, she went to her dorm room. she dropped down on her bed, exhausted from being social. even if it was with her friends and it was only for a few hours. she took out phone, it was time that actually sent a message to dorothea. though she was dreading it. what if she hated bernie. what if she saw bernie and didn’t want her to do anything with her. even if it was just painting her. 

she told sylvain about the news, their friendship was a tad bit odd, but then again what friendship isn’t a tad bit odd. when she told him about the news he immediately choked on his drink. he told her about how many weeks he tried getting her number, and how he was proud of bernadetta. he continued to tell her everything he knew about dorothea (which wasn’t much) but it was enough for her to understand her personality just a bit. 

in conclusion they were opposites. 

bernadetta: hello, dorothea. it’s me, bernadetta. 

as soon as she sent the message she instantly regretted it. ‘no bernie. you should’ve said no.’ she put her headphones on to try to drown out her thoughts with music. 

vrrrb vrrrb 

she picked up her phone. anxiously unlocking her phone.

dorothea: hiiii!  
dorothea: bernadetta yes of course! i’m glad that you finally messaged me. you truly know how to make a girl wait for her prize 

as soon as she read the message bernadetta almost died. ‘retreat. RETREAT!’ 

bernadetta: they wasn’t my intention, i’m sorry.  
dorothea: it’s ok my dear! i’m just teasing, although i would love to see how red your face got when you read it  
dorothea: maybe you can paint me nude? again i’m just teasing ;) 

bernadetta swallowed hard. what did she get herself into. 

dorothea: so i assume manuela told you where to meet for the painting?  
dorothea: also, it’s completely okay if you say no, but i would love to meet you before you paint me. we can meet on saturday and you can paint me on sunday.  
bernadetta: that’s perfect, where do you want to meet? 

dorothea didn’t answer for a couple minutes. ‘she probably figured out that you’re a creep! why did you agree bernie! why why why! you’re such a-‘ 

dorothea: we can meet at the movie theater? then we can eat after. 

although many people found going to see a movie  
was a stupid date idea, bernadetta found it a great idea. after the movie you have a topic you can talk about. plus it can reveal a lot about a person. 

bernadetta: sure :) 

after discussing about the topic of meeting up and about the painting, they started to talk about other topics. bernadetta found out that dorothea was really easy to talk to. besides all of the flirting she did, bernadetta wondered if she was even attracted to girls or if that was just her personality. that was until dorothea said. 

dorothea: sometimes i wished i was just attracted to girls. like they smell better, feel softer but nope. my dumbass had to like both 

bernadetta cheered in her head. though she didn’t know why. was she cheering because she herself was attracted to girls and didn’t have to worry about dorothea being homophobic? or was she cheering because that meant she had a chance. 

“bad bernie!” bernadetta yelled out to herself in her empty room. she couldn’t count how many times she told herself that she couldn’t get emotionally attached to another person, who would just leave her. it was like drinking alcohol. it might be fun when it first starts. but it often leads to regrets and bad ideas. 

after all she was just supposed to paint her. that’s it. she was supposed to stare at her for hours. for who knows how many days it might take. ‘oh bernie..why do you do these things’

bernadetta: ahaha me too 

dorothea: oh so you agree? good to know ;) 

bernadetta fell back onto her bed and laughed at dorothea’s message. only three more days until saturday. then she’ll see dorothea in person. sylvain was accurate when he told her that dorothea was a flirt. but he didn’t tell her about how goofy the girl was. dorothea managed to get bernadetta to laugh more times in three hours than she laughed during her childhood. 

three hours. they’ve been texting for three hours. she’s glad that she screenshot the information they discussed, because it would take all night to scroll back to the beginning of their conversation. but who was kidding, bernadetta almost remembered everything dorothea sent her. 

she could almost picture the girl in her head. she didn’t know much about dorothea appearance. being that given the first opportunity to go to her room, she would. so she never really saw the girl. 

she tried to picture her in her head then dorothea sent her instagram to bernadetta. 

dorothea: add me so i can see some of your art, i would love to see your original art style if you have one 

bernadetta quickly made sure she didn’t have an embarrassing picture before adding the girl. (something she did often whenever someone wanted to see her social media) 

dorothea liked her most recent which was a picture of a frog she painted. slightly embarrassed that was the first artwork that she saw, she went back to their chat. 

dorothea: i love the frog. she is the most beautiful, enchanting, show stopping frog i’ve ever seen :)

bernadetta: thank you! <3 

bernadetta scrolled through dorothea’s pictures. she saw a few that made her laugh, it was the captions you can easily know that dorothea was witty. 

they messaged each other until dorothea told her that she needed to sleep. it was twelve now and bernadetta was surprised how fast the time passed. 

dorothea: i’ll text you in the morning. maybe we can facetime next time. goodnight bernadetta, dream of me ;) 

bernadetta: goodnight dorothea, i’ll try 

as soon as she hit send she realized what she said. 

“oh shit!” she tried to think of ways she could unsend the message but it was pointless. dorothea already read the message. when she saw the three bubbles she threw her phone across her room. “oh fuck!” she covered her mouth. “bad bernie!” she ran to her phone and picked it up. 

lucky for her, the screen wasn’t cracked and looked perfectly normal. she sighed with relief that she didn’t have to buy a new one. dorothea replied.

dorothea: aww good girl 

bernadetta sat her phone upside down on her bed. putting her hands in her messy purple hair. she eventually put her phone on the charger and pulled her blankets over her body. she re-read the messages between her and dorothea. smiling at the flirty messages and even squealing into her blankets when dorothea said something that really flustered her. 

‘good girl’

usually when someone would call her a ‘good girl’ it made her sad. reminded her of her father. but when dorothea, even though it wasn’t an actual verbal conversation. it made her feel better. as if she was rewriting who she was. sure bernie was a good girl. but she was her good girl. not her fathers good girl. 

“good girl.”


	2. 84

“hmm...” bernadetta scanned the isles of paint. she needed oil paints for the art piece. usually she would grab the cheapest priced paint and called it a day but she felt as if she needed something good. 

she went to grab a brand that had a sailor on it. “this’ll do.” she took the colors she needed for her painting. 

peach, for her skin.  
red, for her lips and light natural blush.  
brown, for her chestnut colored hair  
green, for her emerald eyes 

bernadetta grabbed some other paints for her outfit of her choosing. dorothea said she would be wearing a maroon dress, she sent a picture to bernadetta so she knew what it looked like. lucky for bernadetta her friend worked at this paint shop, so she didn’t have to talk to someone new. 

“hey bernadetta. not your usual brand.” ignatz laughed as he scanned her items. he was actually very surprised she picked out a more well known brand, not only was it a bit more expensive, it was a good material. “i-is that bad?” she pulled out her wallet to pay. 

“not at all. that’ll be seventy five and thirty two cents.” he gave her a family discount. 

while bernadetta was walking back to her room she couldn’t help but think, ‘why didn’t professor tell ignatz about the opportunity.’ she walked faster, 

‘he’s a better painter. he could do a way better job than me. why me. bernie is a mess. bernie is probably going to mess everything up. bad bernie.’ 

she went into her dorm room and locked the door behind herself quickly. locking it to make sure that no one would walk in on her. bernadetta set the paint down on her desk, walking to her bed and kicking her shoes off. “bernie. you don’t deserve this. you don’t deserve your friends! you’re worthless, useless, un-marriageable!” she yelled into the sleeve on her hoodie then her phone buzzed. 

dorothea: hey 

it was such a simple text but it meant so much to bernadetta. how somehow when she was crying, at her lowest, dorothea messaged her. it was almost fate. but fate didn’t exist. 

bernadetta: hey 

dorothea: bern, is there anything you want me to get for you? the canvas? paint brushes? 

bernadetta: it’s okay. i have everything :) 

dorothea: then let me pay for the movies and dinner. it’s the least i can do. 

this confused bernadetta. did dorothea forget that she was getting paid to paint her? why was she asking like bernadetta was just doing this because, why not. 

bernadetta: alright if you insist. 

dorothea didn’t reply for awhile. bernadetta figured that she was doing something more important. she stayed looking at her screen hoping that she would reply. 

she laid down on her bed looking up to her ceiling. usually there would be at least one million worries going through her head. yet there was only one worry in her head. ‘when will dorothea reply’ she felt like a teenager waiting for their significant other to reply. not that she would know anything about that. 

dorothea: i do insist. bernadetta, when’s your first class tomorrow? 

bernadetta: eight am 

dorothea: what class? 

bernadetta: history with byleth eisner 

dorothea: where’s your dorm? 

‘she’s asking a lot of questions.’ she noticed. 

bernadetta: on side A, the third floor. 

dorothea: what number? 

bernadetta: like room number? 

dorothea: yes 

bernadetta: 267 

dorothea: alright see you then, goodnight bern ;) 

bernadetta: what?  
bernadetta: dorothea what did you mean by that?  
bernadetta: dorothea!  
bernadetta: i don’t understand??  
bernadetta: ok, i guess?  
bernadetta: ? 

it was no use. dorothea wasn’t going to reply, though she could tell that dorothea read her messages, it was almost like she was teasing bernadetta. but no words were exchanged between them. she changed out of her clothes then went to sleep. 

the next morning when bernadetta woke up she could hear knocking on the door. it confused her. she got up from her bed only in her oversized shirt and panties. she opened her door rubbing her eyes. 

“hey!” 

bernadetta slammed the door shut. she yelled. “s-sorry! i wasn’t expecting anyone!” she looked through the peep hole. 

“it’s fine. but uh do you mind opening up?” 

bernadetta opened the door enough so she could see out of. there she was. dorothea arnault. bernadetta tried to calm her nerves. “w-why are y-you here?” dorothea tilted her head so she could look into her eyes. “i told you last night. now open up the door so i can get in.” 

she found herself subconsciously opening up the door. before she could stop herself, she had already opened up the door. dorothea walked in and looked around her room. “they say that someone’s room can tell you a lot about someone.” she looked back to bernadetta. 

“what can you tell?” she sat down on her bed. dorothea walked over to her chair and grabbed her sports jacket. it was a leather man jacket that she hit from joining the archery team. part of the many conditions her father said she had to do in order for her to go to this college. 

dorothea didn’t answer her question. she grabbed her jacket and put it on, taking her own jacket off. bernadetta wondered if dorothea was usually like this with everyone. walks into a strangers dorm and puts on their clothes. ‘for all she knows, bernie could be a killer!’ 

she did a spin for bernadetta. “von varley.” she said out loud. it had her numbers on the side, ‘84’. it was a little tight on her, she couldn’t button it up, but it looked perfect on her. as if it belonged to her. bernadetta felt a bit of pride. seeing her name on dorothea. 

“oh you’re not dressed yet. let me pick your outfit!” she ran to bernadetta’s closet then searched through it. even though she was asking a question, it came out like a demand or like a warning. bernadetta was surprised that she let the girl go through her belongings. ‘bernie what if she finds something embarrassing!’ 

dorothea tried to pick an outfit out, almost all of her clothes were the same. shirts, pants, hoodies, converse. she grabbed a black shirt, jeans and handed bernadetta her own jacket. it was a jean jacket with a few patches on it. 

she looked up to dorothea. she was too embarrassed to say what she wanted, hoping that dorothea would take the hint. she did. 

she turned around so bernadetta could change. “thank you.” 

“of course.” 

bernadetta quickly changed. when she put her jacket on she let out a little hum. she prayed to god that dorothea didn’t hear her. the smell of dorothea was intoxicating. it was sweet like vanilla, and a little undertone of her natural smell. 

“i’m done.” she grabbed her backpack of filled with her supplies for her next classes. “alright, let’s get going.” she took one last look at her room. as if she was analyzing her room.

they started their walk to bernadetta’s class. “what’s your next c-class.” ‘stupid bernie! she probably doesn’t want to talk to you! she’s only doing this to be nice!” 

“i have theater with manuela at nine. i thought that i would walk you to your class.” she nudged their shoulders playfully. “i mean, might as well get close. i want to get to know you.” 

“really?”


	3. letter

bernadetta walked into her classroom after talking to dorothea. she was happier than she would like to admit to the small gesture. even if it was just a simple walk to class, she felt as if dorothea made the stars and the moon for her. 

she tapped her pen anxiously against her notepad. it was nine AM now and she knew that dorothea was in her theater class by now. she wondered what she was doing. she didn’t know much about theater (besides the ones she watched on youtube) so she wasn’t sure what she was doing. she wondered if she did a play. if she ever had a kiss scene. 

her grip on her pen got tighter as she thought about dorothea doing a kiss scene with someone. maybe she was confusing friendship with love. maybe this was a mistake. 

she shouldn’t have excepted the opportunity, no matter how good it was for her. 

“did dorothea walk you to class?” sylvain leaned over to the girl. “uh yeah. is that a bad thing?”  
“nope, if anything you’re lucky. who knows, you might get really lucky and-“ he stopped once the her noticed that the professor had looked in his direction. 

“listen, all i’m saying is that, you’re lucky. share some of that luck.” he immediately started talking once the professor looked away from him. bernadetta didn’t feel lucky. she felt sick and nervous. then again she always felt sick and nervous. that’s who bernie was. 

when class ended bernadetta and sylvain went to hangout at the common area. she snacked on some oreos while sylvain read her most recent short story. 

“well, i must say.” he handed her back the papers. “it’s amazing! the love between jack and marie” he wiped an nonexistent tear from his eyes. “it’s beautiful.” 

bernadetta shrugged. “it’s not that good.” 

“what was it inspired by?” he asked curiously knowing that she was always inspired by art or history. 

“the greek myth about soulmates. that we’re half of one person. two head, four arms, four legs and two uh private parts. anyways zeus feared our power so he split us into two separate people.” sylvain nodded along as she told the myth. “they say that we are constantly searching for our other half, so we can be whole again.” 

“wow. some people are still two faced though, like that bitch rebeca.” he said taking a sip from his soda. bernadetta burst out into laughter at his valley girl voice. little did she know that dorothea was watching from far away, not in a stalker way. she had just got out of her class and saw bernadetta from the distance. she looked beautiful when she laughed, especially wearing the outfit she picked out. 

“yo! dorothea, you coming?” claude asked as he was walking with his friends. dorothea nodded, catching up with her friends. “woah wearing someone’s jacket?” claude looked at the name. “von varley? is he cute?” 

“in a way yeah.” he was right but he just got the gender wrong. “oh! does he got big dick energy? you might have to let me borrow him.” hilda elbowed him in his side. “shut up claude. but if you’re wearing his jacket does that mean it’s serious or...one night stand?” she whispered the last part, not in a judgmental way since she absolutely loved dorothea, like a sister. 

“no not at all. she’s just the artist that has to paint me. she’s actually really cute.” she lowered her pink tinted glasses. “and to answer your question claude, her dick is eleven inches.” claude laughed, knowing that dorothea was bi and would say things like that. 

“y’know that doesn’t really explain why you’re wearing her jacket. the archery team huh?” 

the group of college students were walking to their favorite cafe. they didn’t have any classes yet or they just got out of class.

“i’m just wearing her jacket because...” she didn’t know why. “because i thought it’d look cute on me. and i wasn’t wrong.” she fixed the collar of the jacket. it smelt like lavender and apple juice. it smelt safe. she couldn’t help but inhale the scent. her friends voices snapped her back into reality. 

“dorothea von varley. it kind of has a ring to it doesn’t it. or uh what’s her name.” “bernadetta.”  
“bernadetta arnault. ugh they both sound good.” he pushed back his hair.

“claude shut up, its not like she’s getting married or anything...are you?”

“no no no.” dorothea laughed. “i’m not getting married, just a simple painting. i hope that we can become friends though. i feel a connection between us.” she put her hands in the pockets of the jacket and noticed that there was something in there. while claude and hilda were arguing about the best vine. claude saying ‘barbecue sauce on my titties’, and hilda saying ‘i saw you hanging out with rebeca yesterday’. 

she took out the small piece of crumbled paper. she un-crumbled the paper and saw some writing. 

‘okay, bernie! you’re going to do great! you’re not going to faint! you’re not going to run away! you’re going to face your problems and deal with them one day at a time! try to talk to someone new! or try something new. you got this bernie bear. deep breaths.’ 

the writing looked like a chicken wrote it or a very confused child. it was sloppy and looked rushed, as if she was quickly writing this while someone was moving her desk. or whatever she was writing on. 

while her friends were waiting in line dorothea went to sit down at a table. she took out a piece of paper and her pen. she began to write a letter, she wrote it with passion. in a similar way how she wrote her poetry or songs. with her heart. 

they came back to the table and looked to dorothea curiously. “uh a letter?” 

“yeah, don’t worry about it. so what did you order?” she put the letter into the pocket of the jacket. “oh i got a coke for me, sprite for hilda and a cherry cola for you. the large fries for the table.” he knew that they all weren’t that hungry. “good, alright so what did you get on question two?” 

“oh honey, i didn’t even do question one..”

they began to make small talk about random topics. eating their food as they joked around with each other. though she might’ve been talking with her friends, her mind was on one thing, bernadetta von varley. 

“hm?” bernadetta walked up to her dorm room and saw her jacket on the floor neatly folded. “oh right,” she remembered that they switched jackets for the day, she wondered when she’d have to give dorothea her jacket back. bernadetta took the archery jacket then walked into her dorm. locking the door behind herself. 

she sat the jacket down and checked her phone, noticing that dorothea messaged her a little under an hour ago. 

dorothea: hey bernadetta! i left your jacket at your door. hopefully no one steals it.  
dorothea: anyways just give me my jacket back on the day we hang out! saturday remember! i’ll pick you up 

dorothea: check the pockets

bernadetta sat the jacket down on her bed.

she debated whether or not she should. for all she knew dorothea could’ve put razor blades in the jacket that were sure to cut her hands up. after all who would ever leave something for someone like her. 

sitting down for ten minutes she decided to check the pockets. she pulled out a folded piece of paper. curiosity filled her mind as she unfolded the paper. then she began to read it. 

‘dear bernadetta, 

hello, how are you my dear. i’m sorry for snooping around your jacket but i noticed that you wrote yourself a little note. i thought it was quite cute and inspirational. it’s hard to be happy and energetic 24/7. not everyone is like that. i understand that, and sometimes you just need a break.   
it’s okay to be scared   
it’s okay to be nervous   
it’s okay to be anxious  
it’s okay to not be able to know how you feel   
it’s okay to not be okay.   
you’re only human, we fall and we break. then we get out back together. like a statue. a statue that broke and glued the pieces back together. you can still see the cracks but that’s what makes you even more beautiful. bernadetta, you are strong. take deep breaths. in and out. i’ll be here for you. 

yours truly, dorothea arnault. 

p.s you’re going to be okay eventually. you’ll make it there.’ 

tears filled bernadetta’s eyes as she read the letter. it was the sweetest thing someone has done for her. tears fell onto the paper as she read it. 

“why are you so nice to me. i don’t deserve it.’


	4. hop in

bernadetta didn’t have good dreams often. or she just didn’t remember her good dreams. she had nightmares. she could always vividly remember her nightmares. they always had one thing in common, she was worthless. 

when she was younger her father would tie her up to a chair and train her to stay quiet. when she was fifteen her father made her take several classes and learn many skills. anything to make her seem more attractive or worthy. one particular memory she wished to forget was when her father came into her room one night and wanted to check her hymen. to make sure she was still innocent, that she was still marriageable. if it wasn’t for her mother rushing in to stop him...well bernadetta didn’t like to think of it. 

she hated her body after that. she looked at herself in the mirror from time to time. naked. just like how she came into this world. her hands would be covered in a thin layer of paint. the color was always light blue, the color of her fathers shirt when that incident happened. she would put her hands on her thin body to see where she was touched. then she took a shower.

it was like she was washing away his touch by washing away the paint. she felt clean for the next few days until the memories would come back. 

bernadetta didn’t want to be friends with dorothea. she wanted to be very clear with that. hey here she was, waiting outside of her dorm for dorothea to pick her up.

she held dorothea’s jean jacket close to her chest, almost hugging it as she waited. dorothea told her that she was driving a red vintage beetle.

dorothea pushed her brown hair back as she stared at herself in her mirror. she lowered her glasses and blew a kiss to the mirror, as if it was someone. 

“oh just hop in.” she said then turned away from the mirror. “uh no. no. let’s do that again.” she took a step back and fixed her glasses. “oh this?” she pointed behind herself acting as if her car was behind her. “it’s just my car. hop in.” she lowered her glasses and winked at the mirror. “ehh no. not that one.” dorothea cleared her throat. 

“hello darling, hop in.” she smiled softly to the mirror, as if she was talking to bernadetta. 

“yeah, that one was the best.” manuela said, peeking her head through the crack of dorothea’s door. dorothea looked towards manuela her hand over her chest. “you almost gave me a heart attack!” she whispered yelled at the older woman. 

manuela walked to dorothea and set a hand on her shoulder. the two women stared at their reflection. “you look beautiful, dorothea. you should get going. don’t want to keep bernadetta waiting.” she kissed the top of dorothea’s head before walking out of her room. 

dorothea stared in the mirror. her face red with embarrassment from being caught by manuela talking to herself. she walked to her bed to grab her bag then walked out of her room. “alright manuela! i’m leaving.” she put her shoes on then grabbed her keys. manuela ran to dorothea. “if you’re in trouble just call me!” she walked dorothea out of the house. “have fun. but not too much fun.” she winked at dorothea as she stepped into her car. 

“i’ll be back before ten!” she waved bye to manuela then pulled out of the driveway and started to drive to bernadetta’s dorm room. manuela was a mother towards dorothea. 

her mother, a maid, slept with the eldest son of a rich family. the family fired her mother who was forced to have the child. without a job and no where to live, her mother raised dorothea on the streets. stealing books to teach her daughter. sadly her mother passed away from a illness. 

dorothea had to learn to survive after that awful day. one faithful day she happened to be singing, begging for money or any food that she could get, when she met manuela. 

manuela raised her from that day on. she went to court and demanded that she would be able to have guardianship over the young girl. she remembered being scared the first night she slept inside of a bedroom instead of the streets. she kept waking up throughout the night, a habit she picked up when she was homeless. 

the next morning manuela noticed that she hadn’t slept the whole night. so that very night manuela held dorothea as she fell asleep and sang her beautiful songs. songs about adventure, riches, care and love. 

manuela took her in while most adults she met would be disgusted at the sight of her. she raised dorothea as if she was her child. that was eight years ago. now eighteen, she was manuela’s prodigy.

dorothea drove up the dorms to see a small bernadetta holding something in her arms. it was almost amusing how small she was compared to her. she rolled down the window of the car. lowered her glasses and looked at bernadetta. 

“hello darling, hop in.” she nodded her head to the smaller girl. 

bernadetta anxiously walked around the car to the other side then opened the door. “y-you have a nice car.” she said in a small voice as she looked around her new surroundings. dorothea hummed as an answer as she started to drive. “oh put on any music you want.” she said not knowing bernadetta’s music taste, though she was very eager to find out. 

she felt like a high school girl who just made it on the cheerleading team. she felt happy. the purple haired girl nodded then played some indie music. she seemed hesitant to play the song. as if she was nervous that dorothea would kick her out of the car for liking music. 

dorothea nodded her head and hummed along with the song. showing bernadetta that she liked the song she picked. 

when bernadetta first got into the car she stayed on the right side, almost half of her body was pressed against the door. now that they were two minutes into their ten minute drive she moved closer to dorothea.

“bernadetta! you must play more of this music. you have a good music taste.” she praised her friend and was so distracted she almost ran a red light. she hoped that bernadetta didn’t notice. luckily she was too busy trying to find another song to play than to pay attention to dorothea’s driving. 

eventually they made it to the movie theater and dorothea walked out of her car and quickly ran to bernadetta’s side. she opened the door for the smaller girl. “m’lady.” she lowered her glasses winking at her. bernadetta’s face flushed as she stepped out the car. “t-thank you.” 

as they walked to the theater to buy their tickets, their shoulders and hands brushed together. sending a shock of electricity to bernadetta’s body. she wondered if dorothea felt it. they got into line and bought their tickets. she wondered how this day would go.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> also if anyone was confused, manuela adopted dorothea. because she would definitely do so


	5. Chapter 5

when the movie ended dorothea was practically talking about the whole movie as if she had done extensive research on it. she spoke with such a passion about the plot, the main climax and the conclusion. she broke down each character, about their motives and their character development. 

bernadetta should’ve expected this, after all dorothea was a theater major. the way she spoke with such a passion about the art of film making, the art of telling a story, made bernadetta feel a sort of passion as well. 

when people spoke about their interests bernadetta would usually let them speak. give them all of her attention as she waited for them to finish, so she could kindly run off to her room. when dorothea spoke about her interest, she stepped into the conversation. she gave her ideas about how the film could've taken a different turn, and to her surprise dorothea agreed. 

for the first time she wasn’t worried about sounding stupid or doing the wrong thing with her hands. she walked side by side besides dorothea as they walked out of the theater. her shoulder was about five inches below dorothea’s shoulder. the height difference was cute as bernadetta had to look up to the girl, which gave her an interesting angle. she took a mental picture of the girl as she walked. she spent so much time just staring at her as she talked, she didn’t notice that they arrived to dorothea’s car. 

“but honestly, i don’t see why charlie was in the movie...” she said as she opened up the passenger door. at first bernadetta thought that she was going to make bernie drive before she realized that she was opening the door for her. she gave a simple head nod to the seat, as if telling bernadetta to get in the car. such a small act of kindness left bernadetta blushing as she took her seat. 

dorothea quickly moved to the other side of the car, taking her own seat as she started the car up. she took a moment to catch her breath. she had been speaking about the movie for about five minutes now. 

“sorry if i was boring you.” she rubbed the back of her neck as she pulled out of the parking spot. “i just like talking about film and acting. it’s nothing really.” 

“i don’t think it’s nothing. i thought it was...” bernadetta couldn’t find the right words. cute? passionate? amazing? interesting? “i thought it was inspiring how you spoke with such a passion about film.” only just a few words left dorothea with a blush on her own face. “the way you spoke about the film, it was with a passion that i never see. it’s...amazing when you see someone talk about their passions.” she looked out the window watching the other cars drive by. 

dorothea had a dumb grin on her face as she drove to the restaurant. “thank you.” she wasn’t sure what she was thanking the girl for, but she felt as if she needed to thank her. 

they soon arrived to the restaurant, the two girls sat in a comfortable silence as dorothea parked the car. “oh! the food here is good. the best part, these cute girls give you your food.” for a second bernadetta feared that dorothea took her to hooters. she stepped out of the car before she saw that they were at sonics. she gave dorothea a curious face. “my friend works here, she’ll give us a good deal. oh hilda!” she sang the girls name as she took bernadetta’s hand. 

the purple haired girl’s face was red. she was left speechless as she felt the warmth of the girls hand. she hoped that her hands weren’t too cold.

“hey dorothea...who’s this?” she pointed to the girl who was holding hands with dorothea. she took note of their hand holding as she looked back to dorothea with a raised eyebrow. “oh just my friend bernadetta. we got back from the movies and we’re pretty hungry.” 

bernadetta stayed beside dorothea. her hand tightened as hilda looked over to her for a second. dorothea gave her the usual order that she made, while bernadetta ordered the same thing. too afraid of being judged for making her own order. luckily she liked the same thing dorothea ordered. 

they took a seat over at a small table, dorothea let go of the girls hand so she could take her seat. 

she tapped the table excitedly. “bernadetta....you’re so cute.” she reached over to pinch the girls cheek. “oh my little bern!” bernadetta blushed red as she let dorothea pinch her cheeks.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> it’s a short chapter but i hope you like it

**Author's Note:**

> i hope you liked it


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